I will tell you this as I get you up to date with some pictures as well! ;)
Si and Gwen helped make these cookies for our Thanksgiving Day meal. We invited all the Americans we knew and also some Australian friends to come and join us for the day.
Addy enjoying some appetizers
What Thanksgiving isn't complete without pumpkin pie? Well we did it a bit different but equally good I have to say! Pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting! YUM!
Grace Kenner with Addy
Houghton and I were asked to help with a Christmas Banquet that a couple in our church put on every year. It was a beautiful event with music, fantastic food, and a message.
Here I am helping one of the pianists who performed with her page turning...its tough but somebodies gotta do it. :)
Marie-Clare and Emmanuel Azali are friends from church and are on their way to Thailand to work in an orphanage. Sina and Merhnoosh are friends and met Houghton when Merhnoosh was helping Him learn Farsi for language learning class at SIL.
Some of the students that had Merhnoosh as a helper bought her a Bible in Farsi. Here Emmanuel who speaks Farsi is talking with her and Sina about a story in the Bible.
Moving from Kangaroo Ground! Si helping pack up our lives from the SIL housing to move into Joy's house outside of Melbourne. Joy is a friend from church. We will be staying at her house until we move to Vanuatu in the second week of Feb.
Gwen packing up her clothes.
Taking a trip to the dump. Isn't it amazing at how much we acquire (and us only in a year!). Enough to have to throw stuff out! Well, it was mostly just boxes and garbage from cleaning the house out, but still!
Getting the kids settled into their room at Joys house.
Gwen and Grace Kenner
Si and Josh Kenner
Gotta give you a pic we took of a koala. After all we ARE in Australia! ;)
Jim Kenner tickling Gwen.
What great friends and teammates we have! The Kenners, Laura and us.
Joy putting Gwen's hair up. Gwen and Joy have a fun bond. Gwen will crawl up on Joy's lap and watch Philippino TV all day with her! :) Joy is such a blessing to us.
Decorating our tree. Some friends from church thought of us during Christmas and offered a tree complete with trimmings for us to use! I was SO thrilled as it is such a close tradition for me that I was thrilled to do it with my kids. This was the first Christmas Tree we have all put up together!
Our little family
Kangaroos in Montana?? This pic is taking out our front door at Joy's house. We had to laugh because it totally looks like MONTANA! Except with kangaroos! ;)
Houghton was able to go and help a friend work on this house. It is built out of cement board. With some alterations, this could be a possibility for us to use something like this in the bush.
Making Christmas cookies!
Si singing in the children's choir at our Christmas program
Gwen putting up a picture as a story is read for her part in the Christmas program.
As well as singing in the choir with Houghton, Laura and I played the hand chimes. I had never played these before and found it pretty hard. But SO fun!
Our Christmas Eve feast! We made coconut battered shrimp and stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. We were pretty jazzed about how well it all turned out!
Just before Christmas, Si turned 5!!!!!
Joy with Gwen
Opening gifts with Laura
We spent Christmas with some friends from church. We had such a beautiful day with the Hughes-Gage family and felt like we were with family! What a wonderful blessing. We were also able to call back to the states to say an early (as it was only Christmas Eve in USA) Merry Christmas to our parents.
Si painting Gwen's nails!
For a couple weeks we are house sitting and we are able to also pet sit! It has been great fun for us and also for the kids as they get to play with all new toys (the family we are house sitting for has four kids) in a new house! :)
We hosted a New Years Eve party for our church at "our" house.
We visited the Alfred Nicholas Gardens in a nearby Mountain range that was just breath taking!
I should explain this picutre! ;) This was a hankerchif tree. And sure enough the leafs were SO SO soft. So Si gave me a good sneeze so I could get a picture of the leaf in use!
Enjoying some hot chocolate and scones at a shop.
Si got to go to a Cricket game with Houghton
Well that gets you pretty much up to date with us now! We are housesitting for one more week and then we will be heading back to Joy's house until Feb 14th or so which is when we move to Vanuatu.
We still do not have housing in Vanuatu so please keep praying for this as with getting Visas to be able to stay in Vanuatu for the next 2 years!
Since we don't have internet our communication has been slow and for that we are SO sorry. However, we try to check emails every week. So shoot us one! We are so thankful for you all and would love to hear from you and hear what you have been up to these days!
Cheers!
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